re-nightmares.com

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple is recalling the USB power adapters sold with the
iPhone 3G in North America and Japan amid concerns they are prone to breaking.

The USB power adapter sold with the iPhone 3G is being recalled by Apple.

You can get a replacement unit at your local Apple store starting October 10, or you can order one from Apple’s Web site here.

The company announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program Friday, which applies to iPhone 3G owners who bought the device in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, and selected countries in South America. Apple included a USB power block, shown at right, inside the box for the iPhone 3G in these countries, and the company has received reports that the prongs on that power block can break off and remain inside your wall socket, which is not good. The power adapters sold with the original iPhone as well as the ones sold in other countries are not included in this recall.

No injuries have been reported, but Apple is warning users of those power adapters to stop using them immediately until they obtain a redesigned adapter. Check the bottom of your adapter: if there’s a green dot, you’ve got the redesigned one and don’t need to do anything. If there’s no dot, it’s time to replace that unit.

If your power adapter has a green dot, it's one of the redesigned (safe) models.

(Credit:
Apple)

It wasn’t until December 26 that a Vermont Department of Corrections officer tried to access the laptop–prosecutors obtained a subpoena on December 19–and found that the Z: drive was encrypted with PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy. (PGP sells software, including whole disk encryption and drive-specific encryption, which can be configured to forget the passphrase after a certain time. That would effectively re-encrypt the Z: drive.)

Boucher’s attorney, Jim Budreau, already has filed an appeal to the Second Circuit. That makes it likely to turn into a precedent-setting case that creates new ground rules for electronic privacy, especially since Homeland Security claims the right to seize laptops at the border for an indefinite period. Budreau was out of the office on Thursday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

At issue in this case is whether forcing Boucher to type in that PGP passphrase–which would be shielded from and remain unknown to the government–is “testimonial,” meaning that it triggers Fifth Amendment protections. The counterargument is that since defendants can be compelled to turn over a key to a safe filled with incriminating documents, or provide fingerprints, blood samples, or voice recordings, unlocking a partially-encrypted hard drive is no different.

“There is no distinction” between requiring a defendant to turn over the passphrase or type it in himself in front of a grand jury, Steinhardt said. “Either of those things results in an encrypted set of files being brought into plain view.”

Judge Sessions reached his conclusion by citing a Second Circuit case, U.S. v. Fox, that said the act of producing documents in response to a subpoena may communicate incriminating facts in two ways: first, if the government doesn’t know where the incriminating files are, or second, if turning them over would “implicitly authenticate” them.

Because the Justice Department believes it can link Boucher with the files through another method, it’s agreed not to formally use the fact of his typing in the passphrase against him. (The other method appears to be having the ICE agent testify that certain images were on the laptop when viewed at the border.)

Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s technology and liberty program, said on Thursday that the opinion reached the wrong conclusion and that Boucher “should have been able to assert his Fifth Amendment rights. It’s not the same thing as asking him to turn over the Xeroxed copy of a document.”

The Fifth Amendment says nobody can be “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,” which Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled in November 2007 prevented Boucher from being forced to divulge his passphrase to prosecutors.

The defendant is a Canadian citizen who is a lawful permanent resident in the United States and lived with his father in Derry, N.H.

Originally, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the magistrate judge to enforce a subpoena requiring Boucher to turn over “passwords used or associated with” the computer. In their appeal to Sessions, prosecutors narrowed their request and said they only want Boucher to decrypt the contents of his hard drive before the grand jury, apparently by typing in his passphrase in front of them.

In an abrupt reversal, U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Vermont ruled that Sebastien Boucher, who a border guard claims had child porn on his Alienware laptop, does not have a Fifth Amendment right to keep the files encrypted.

Boucher was initially arrested when customs agents stopped him and searched his laptop when he and his father crossed the border from Canada on December 17, 2006. An officer opened the laptop, accessed the files without a password or passphrase, and allegedly discovered “thousands of images of adult pornography and animation depicting adult and child pornography.” Boucher was read his Miranda rights, waived them, and allegedly told the customs agents that he may have downloaded child pornography. But then–and this is key–the laptop was shut down after Boucher was arrested.

A federal judge has ordered a criminal defendant to decrypt his hard drive by typing in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can view the unencrypted files, a ruling that raises serious concerns about self-incrimination in an electronic age.

“Boucher is directed to provide an unencrypted version of the Z drive viewed by the ICE agent,” Sessions wrote in an opinion last week, referring to Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. Police claim to have viewed illegal images on the laptop at the border, but say they couldn’t access the Z: drive when they tried again nine days after Boucher was arrested.

Sessions wrote: “Boucher’s act of producing an unencrypted version of the Z drive likewise is not necessary to authenticate it. He has already admitted to possession of the computer, and provided the government with access to the Z drive. The government has submitted that it can link Boucher with the files on his computer without making use of his production of an unencrypted version of the Z drive, and that it will not use his act of production as evidence of authentication.”

He wrote on his blog:

American Airlines has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Yahoo claiming it is diverting business to the airline’s competitors by allowing them to purchase ads that appear next to American Airlines-related search results.

Eric Goldman, an associate professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school’s High Tech Law Institute, said he was surprised by the lawsuit and predicted that the two sides will reach a settlement.

Second, it wasn’t clear that American Airlines ‘won’ its settlement with Google. The settlement was confidential, but after the settlement I could still easily find triggered ads that the lawsuit targeted. So exactly what did Google concede to, and how were those concessions appealing enough to motivate American Airlines to tango again?

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Forth Worth, Texas, late last week, is similar to one that American Airlines filed against Google last year and then settled earlier this year.

Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Benander provided this statement via e-mail: “We have confidence in our trademark policies and are prepared to defend them in court.”

The airline contends that allowing other companies to purchase ads that are displayed when someone searches on an American Airlines-trademarked term confuses the public and directs potential American Airlines customers to other companies.

Most SEMs (search engine marketers) I’ve spoken with think that Yahoo has a much more trademark owner-favorable policy than Google. Thus, I would have thought that Yahoo would be better positioned and willing to address American Airlines’ concerns than Google was, and it’s surprising to see that Yahoo couldn’t resolve the dispute outside of court.

Yahoo’s search marketing policies differ from Google’s in that they only allow advertisers to use trademarks for sponsored search listings if they are resellers of the products or services of the trademark holder.

Right now the best protection against being infected by viruses in new devices is to keep antivirus software up to date, and disable Windows’ AutoRun features and instead manually launch programs and installers when devices are inserted. The CERT security research organization has more information on the risks associated with AutoRun on its Web site.

Security Web site Attrition.org maintains a list of products shipped to customers that were found to be infected with viruses and other malicious or odd programs. The list, which goes back to 1990, includes a credit card terminal that contained a bug to steal credit card information, MP3 players, USB drives, and other hard drives with computer worms, and a Cisco VPN Client CD that had MP3s of Mexican drug-runner folk music known as “Narcocorridos,” all in 2008. Then there are the infamous Video iPods that shipped in 2006 with a Windows virus. (And just last April, a colleague bought a re-conditioned
iPod Nano that arrived with a virus.)

The culprit is believed to be poor quality-assurance testing procedures in which one of every 1,000 or so devices is plucked off an assembly line and tested on a computer that is infected with a virus, he said.

In 2007, U.S. officials recalled melamine-laced pet food that caused the deaths of cats and dogs and lead-coated toys that endangered toddlers. Now, digital photo frames infected with computer viruses are the latest problem import from China.

Attrition.org offers a long and growing list of malware-infected products that have hit store shelves.

Element and Mercury brand frames sold at Circuit City and Wal-Mart, respectively, also were reported to be infected, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“This list is not complete, yet it should make you realize that nothing is safe,” the Attrition.org site says in a cynical warning. “Every piece of electronics you buy and every piece of software you install may come with malware pre-installed. Rather than manufacturers introducing a higher set of quality controls to prevent such incidents, we will no doubt see companies produce new products that will help keep you ’safe’ from such threats. These ‘controls’ would no-doubt be another band-aid on top of band-aids that make up a lucrative market, which is sad commentary about how customers perceive and receive ‘electronic security.’”

For instance, the ubiquity and convenience of USB thumb drives make them a growing propagation vector. A virus outbreak on a U.S. Department of Defense network prompted officials to temporarily ban the use USB drives, CDs and removable storage devices in November.

Sales of digital photo frame are increasing and Chinese suppliers produced more than 8 million in 2007, according to MarketResearch.com. Their plug-and-play use and the fact that they serve as a digital replacement for paper albums make electronic picture frames popular holiday gifts.

A year ago, Insignia digital picture frames were pulled from shelves and online sites after Best Buy learned they could be carrying a virus. Also reported to be infected then were digital frames from Advanced Design System, Digital Spectrum, and Castleton. But digital frames aren’t the only electronic items found to carry a hidden payload. Other malware-infected devices have included MP3-playing sunglasses, a flip video camera, and Maxtor external hard drives, according to the SANS Internet Storm Center.

The problem is getting serious enough to merit congressional hearings on how to protect consumers against getting harmed from the electronic products they buy, said Sachs of the SANS Internet storm.

(Credit: Attrition.org)

Before Christmas, Samsung and Amazon issued alerts warning customers that some Photo Frame Driver CDs for Samsung’s SPF line of digital photo frames contained a virus in the frame manager software. Customer PCs running Windows XP are at risk of being infected by the virus, W32.Sality.AE, which drops a keylogger or backdoor onto the system.

“That phenomenon apparently has bled over to the digital side as well,” Marcus Sachs, director of the Internet Storm Center at the SANS Institute (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security), said of the Chinese manufacturing problems that get exported. “Essentially, it’s a supply chain problem. We’ve become dependent on a cheap source coming out of Asia.”

“Anything that has flash storage or bootable storage is exposed to this kind of threat,” said Dave Marcus, director of security research for McAfee Avert Labs. “It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy them. You should just realize before you plug it in that you might want to disable the Windows auto-boot functionality and run an antivirus scan on it, just to be safe.”

mDNSResponder 2
This patch affects users of Windows Vista, XP SP2, SP3, 2003, and 2000. The update addresses the vulnerability detailed within CVE-2008-3635. Apple explains that “Bonjour for Windows provides Zero Configuration Networking, Multicast DNS, and Network Service Discovery for Windows users. It’s also possible to use the Bonjour API to issue conventional unicast DNS queries. A weakness in the DNS protocol may allow a remote attacker to spoof DNS responses. As a result, if there are applications that use Bonjour for Windows for unicast DNS, those applications may receive forged information. However, there are no known applications that use the Bonjour APIs for unicast DNS hostname resolution.” This issue does not affect systems running Mac OS X.

mDNSResponder 1
This patch affects users of
Windows Vista, XP SP2, SP3, 2003, and 2000. The update addresses null pointer reference issue in CVE-2008-2326. Apple says the problem within Bonjour Namespace Provider lies in resolving a maliciously crafted “.local” domain name containing a long DNS label. Doing so may cause an unexpected application termination. This issue does not affect systems running
Mac OS X.

Apple on Tuesday released Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5., patching the DNS vulnerabilities first reported by Dan Kaminsky of IOActive in July. Bonjour for Windows can be found within iTunes. Earlier on Tuesday, Apple released DNS patches for iPod Touch. Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5 may be obtained downloading iTunes 8.0 or from Apple Software Downloads.

I did it on a few occasions and it worked beautifully. It turns out many of my followers really enjoy tech talk and discussions on sports. Whenever I find a good article on those topics, I post it on Twitter and more often than not, my followers retweet my update.

It’s more than text
Have you ever taken pictures and uploaded them to a service like Twitpic so you could post it in your Twitter stream? If you haven’t, your followers are missing out.

Sending pictures is a great way to add more value to Twitter and make you a better Tweeter. Let’s face it: who really wants to look at text all day? Your followers might actually like pictures better than your regular updates.

Use hashtags
Have something interesting to say on a topic that’s hot on Twitter right now? Make sure you use hashtags — keywords preceded by the hash sign, “#”. Over the past few months, hashtags have become a great way for other users to find content quickly.

To retweet, the accepted practice is to copy the original text into your own Twitter post and prefix it with “RT” or “Retweet” and the originator’s name. For example: “RT @donreisinger: I resubscribed to the NY Post last week. Delivery was supposed to begin on Jan. 31. I have YET to receive a paper.”

I’m not quite sure why we all get the urge to update as often as possible, but we need to realize that updates from scripts are a waste of everyone’s time.

Look, I’m really happy to hear about your life and what’s going on, but I don’t need to be inundated with items you’re adding to Google Reader or songs currently playing on your computer. Maybe someone cares, but when I see my stream being overrun with automatic updates, it annoys me. Don’t do it. Please.

It’s OK to say nothing
Just because there’s a big box beneath a “What are you doing?” message in Twitter, it doesn’t mean that you need to say anything.

I had some trouble with that. And if you look at my recent updates, it seems I still do. But I’m getting better. I now realize that people on Twitter don’t want to just hear what others have to say, they want to be heard. And the best way to satisfy that desire is to reply to their interesting tweets.

Has one of your followers updated their Twitter stream with an interesting article they found somewhere on the Web? If so, don’t just read the story and go about your day, retweet it! I’ve found that when I do so, most of my followers will do the same and in the process, some add my username to their own update, exposing me to their entire list of followers.

Sorry, but no one cares about your dinner
There’s a common complaint, made especially by those who don’t like Twitter, that too many people use the service to tell the world about things no one cares about. Usually, I think that’s ridiculous. But sometimes, I find a few updates like that and realize that maybe those folks aren’t so far off.

Hashtags basically create groupings on Twitter that combine content of the same topic. It sounds simple, but whenever you have something really interesting to say about a topic that’s hot on Twitter or Twitter Search, it doesn’t hurt to place a hashtag after your tweet. It helps others find your update that aren’t following you and exposes you to new people who might like what you have to say.

But this time, I think I succeeded. Instead of trying to find ways to add more followers through dodgy practices, I’ve researched ways to add more value to Twitter and become a better tweeter.

Reply. A lot.
I like to talk. I’ll even admit that I like to hear myself talk. As a Twitter user, that’s sort of a problem.

Find interesting stuff and post
You know when I told you that you should retweet interesting updates you see in your stream? That’s lazy. You really need to be a proactive user. Go out and find neat articles and post them in your Twitter stream for others to enjoy. Maybe they’ll retweet your update and you will be exposed to a slew of new people who want to know all about you.

The Sweet Retweet
Although it’s a relatively new practice, retweeting is an outstanding way to improve your standing on Twitter.

Believe it or not, followers actually want to believe that you’re listening to them. I know, I know, it’s not all that easy and sometimes it’s hard not to laugh at the dumb tweets, but you need to exercise restraint and realize that Twitter is a community where people want to have a conversation.

Look, it’s nothing personal and believe it or not, I really care what you say, but I couldn’t care less about what you had for dinner last night or how delicious your chicken salad sandwich is. I’d much rather see it filled with retweets and other interesting tidbits of information that the vast majority of users actually care about.

Not all articles are created equal, though, so you need to make sure that the message you’re retweeting is something your followers actually care about. I learned the hard way: it turns out my followers really don’t care about horseback riding in Moscow.

And now, you’re a better Tweeter. You don’t have to thank me. Just follow me. Why not? You know what you’re getting: a user that retweets your interesting articles, won’t talk about his dinner, listens to you, finds interesting stuff for you, doesn’t spam you, uses hashtags, and uploads pictures.

That’s why I’ve uploaded pictures from my wedding. It turns out my followers would rather see pictures of my wife than hear what I have to say.

You’re probably wondering how I know that it doesn’t make you a better Tweeter. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson not long ago. The hard way.

Realizing my last round of Twitter research left my Twitter followers wondering what was wrong with me, I thought it would be a good time to perform research that they actually valued. It wasn’t easy. My desire to add more followers, at all costs, consumes me.

Indeed, as the NFL gets ready to put on the big game this Sunday in Tampa, Fla., between the five-time champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the perennial bottom-dwelling Arizona Cardinals, the league and its many partners will be rolling out a wide variety of technology, much of which has been used in the past, but some of which is all new.

“It’s about time criticality and high availability,” he said. “If one host goes down, the other immediately picks up.”

Still, with all this technology in place, the game will commence on Sunday, just as it has on 42 previous occasions, with the entirely low-tech flip of a coin, and the kicking of an inflated pigskin ball. When all is said and done, it’s nice to know that behind the many layers of the very latest technology available, the Super Bowl is, at its roots, just a kids’ game played by a bunch of men.

And lest the players themselves not benefit from technology–or at least be involved with it–a company called US Fleet Tracking says it is helping to ensure the safety and security of the dozens of “key NFL and entertainment personalities” as they are bused from location to location in Tampa this week.

The NFL has been using Twitter to spread the word about the latest and greatest happenings in Tampa during Super Bowl week. The feed is just one of a number of technologies being used at the Super Bowl that are little known or seen.

What viewers won’t see
For the NFL, supporting all its efforts in Tampa is a very computing-heavy project. As such, the league has partnered with IBM and is using a series of four IBM BladeCenter S chassis, one at each of four venues the NFL has set up around Tampa: one for general media and PR, one for the league’s offices, one for game-day media and PR, and one for credentialing and in-house security.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, technology has always played a very central role, and this year is no exception.

And a good deal of that is behind-the-scenes tech that most fans never see, would never think of, or is new and niche enough that they will never even know it existed.

“Midnight at the hotel bar, no celebs,” a Wednesday night tweet began. “Oh wait…there’s Donovan McNabb! I’m sure he’s still shocked he’s not preparing for Sunday’s game.”

“Through real-time information updates, security officials can ensure that the proper authorities and escorts are always in the right place at the right time,” a statement from the network provider, Kore Telematics, said. “Officials also have the ability to respond instantly if any vehicle leaves the expected route, becomes delayed or is subject to other unexpected events.”

According to Jonathan Kelly, director of computing infrastructure for the NFL, the league chose the IBM blade servers because they offer a high degree of mobility–the blades are briefcase sized–and very quick set up.

The NFL is using a series of BladeSensor S chassis to power the computing at its four venues in Tampa during Super Bowl week. For the NFL, the blade servers allow quick setup, high mobility, and all-important redundancy.

• Click here for more Super Bowl stories.

“Wow,” another began. “Sully and the crew of US Airways Flight 1549 will be honored during Super Bowl XLIII pregame! Very cool.”

What viewers will see
While the Super Bowl game is the main event for football fans, watching the elaborate and expensive commercials made to air specifically during the contest has long been a favorite of even the most sports-averse.

For the most part, viewers won’t see many differences during the Super Bowl from NBC’s regular-season Sunday night NFL broadcasts. One small innovation will be a new on-screen graphic.

To be sure, a Super Bowl Twitter feed isn’t the most advanced or glamorous thing in the world, but to the NFL, it’s a way to share a little bit of the flavor of the excitement gathering around the game.

(Credit:
Twitter)

“The biggest change…viewers will see is a slightly refined graphic look,” Broadcasting & Cable reported, “as NBC will have individual player stats briefly pop onscreen to replace the ’score bug’ in an effort to reduce on-screen clutter.”

According to Steve Schklair, the CEO of 3ality Digital’s technology division, 3ality Digital Systems–the company whose cameras were used to film the included live-action footage–all of the 3D spots will be possible to watch without special glasses, but will be much richer with pairs of 3D specs that are being handed out all over the country at retail outlets where SoBe drinks are sold.

The blades run VMware’s virtual platform and give the league the ability to run virtualized operations at each of its four venues in Tampa, said Joe Manto, the NFL’s vide president of information technology.

Each chassis has two of the blades, which offers all-important redundancy, Kelly said.

Correction: This post initially misstated the company providing the tracking technology being used to provide security and safety for NFL personnel. The company is US Fleet Tracking.

At its core, football represents the polar opposite of technology: A bunch of large men run around a field, battling for position and the control of a small pigskin ball.

Another online innovation the NFL is touting is a system its SuperBowl.com site employed for the league’s annual Media Day on Tuesday. Online viewers were able to select from five different cameras filming the event and watch the player they wanted to see speak.

(Credit:
IBM)

“Our digital media group has been working furiously to find new ways to help our fans experience Super Bowl week,” said NFL.com spokesperson Joanna Hunter in an e-mail, “even if they can’t travel to Tampa Bay to be there in person.”

This year should be no exception. But for the first time, TV viewers will be seeing two extremely technologically cutting edge ads, modern 3D commercials for SoBe drinks and for NBC’s Chuck, as well as a 90-second preview of the forthcoming 3D Dreamworks film, Monsters vs. Aliens.

“Specialty cameras for the Super Bowl include robotic units on the goalposts and in the hallways outside each team’s locker room,” Broadcasting & and Cable reported, “dedicated goal-line cameras, overhead Cable-cams and X-Mo ultra-high-frame-rate cameras from Inertia Unlimited that will be used to deliver incredibly detailed slow-motion replays. The X-Mo cameras will give frame-by-frame views of both the goal line, to gauge whether a touchdown has been scored, and the sideline, to see exactly where a player stepped out of bounds.”

For example, even though Twitter has become a mainstay of the Web 2.0 world, it is still a mystery to most people. But the NFL decided to embrace the microblogging service, and has already rolled out its Super Bowl Twitter feed. There, an unknown number of people have been posting regular updates for the last few days about the goings-on in Tampa–the big press events, the behind-the-scenes developments, all kinds of football-related observations that fans may or may not appreciate.

In the Gameday Operations area, then, NFL officials will be monitoring the players and other VIPs in real time on six 42-inch LCD TVs, and they will get updates on the locations of their charges every five seconds. Further, they’ll be able to see precisely where the various vehicles they’re watching are, down to accuracy of a quarter mile per hour and eight inches.

Again, a small development, but one the league hopes enhanced the overall experience of its fans.

The NFL and 3ality have a previous history, as well. In December, the NFL used 3ality’s technology to broadcast a regular season game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers in 3D.

To put on its broadcast, NBC will have 200 crew at the game, and more than 450 total production and engineering staff in Tampa. And the effort will feature 52 high-definition cameras, 45 vehicles (including control trucks, mobile units, office trailers and a horse trailer), 24 digital video replay sources, eight digital post-production facilities (five Avid suites and three Final Cut Pro suites), 20 hand-held cameras, five robotic cameras, two RF hand-held cameras, one “cable-cam” camera that is suspended above the field, 50 miles of camera and microphone cable, 93 microphones, and much more.

When it comes to TV, of course, the biggest piece of the Super Bowl puzzle is the broadcast of the game itself. This year, NBC has the coveted rights to the NFL championship, and, as it did with its recent coverage of the Beijing Olympics, the Peacock Network is putting huge resources into the project.

US Fleet Tracking’s technology is being used to track the location and movements of the players, as well as Bruce Springsteen–the halftime performer–around the Super Bowl city. The idea is that by employing tracking devices, the NFL’s Gameday Operations personnel can be kept aware of the precise location of all these people.

Yet there were just 1,940 followers for the Super Bowl Twitter feed as of Thursday afternoon, a tiny number when compared to the millions of fans who will watch the game on TV, and a sign that this technology is, even now, something that has risen to the attention of only the smallest number of people.

For the NFL, the IBM blade servers are a clean break from what the league used in many previous years: large numbers of individual servers and computers, all of which took a lot of time to set up and and a lot of manpower to operate.

Of course, the production of an actual NFL game requires lots of technology–from the headsets coaches use to communicate, to the computers used to calculate statistics to the HD cameras that record the contest for the viewing audience.

Schklair added that the value of showing 3D ads and trailers during the Super Bowl comes from the fact that research has shown that the retention rate for messages put out in 3D is far higher than for traditional 2D. Further, he said, the Super Bowl 3D ads will be a good test case for potentially running 3D trailers in movie theaters in the future.

Whether dozens of highly-paid, young professional football players in a town full of parties and nonstop entertainment will want to have their movements tracked to within an accuracy of eight inches is another matter.

In 2008, the league did run beta versions of the IBM blade architecture, but this year, it is standardizing on full production versions, and plans to roll them out after the Super Bowl for each of the 32 NFL teams.

Instead of the traditional green and red 3D glasses, these are yellow and blue and, Schklair said, different than the eyewear required to watch the new style of 3D films being shown in theaters around the country these days.

On Tuesday, Cicconi told attendees of the Leadership Music Digital Summit that the ISP has begun issuing warning notices to people accused of pirating music by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA, the trade group representing the four largest music labels, said in December that it had received cooperation from some large Internet service providers. CNET reported Wednesday that besides AT&T, Comcast and Cox Communications were also working with the music industry.

This much at least Cicconi wants customers to understand: “AT&T is not going to suspend or terminate anyone’s policy without a court order.”

Cicconi raises some important questions. How many ISPs are willing to cut off a customer’s Internet connection without a court order, and how effective is the RIAA’s graduated response program without one?

Updated at 5:05 p.m. PDT to include explanation of RIAA’s graduated response, quotes from RIAA, as well as information about how some ISPs had already implemented their own type of graduated response.

Jim Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T, says much has been written about his company’s relationship with the music industry and some of it is flatly untrue.

“It’s a standard part of everybody’s terms of service,” Cicconi said. “If somebody is engaging in illegal activity, it basically gives us the right to do it…We’re not a finder of fact and under no circumstances would we ever suspend or terminate service based on an allegation from a third party. We’re just simply reminding people that they can’t engage in illegal activity.”

But music industry sources told CNET that Comcast has agreed to cooperate with the RIAA in other ways.

“We’re pleased to be in constructive discussions with several ISPs. We’re making important progress, and doing so in a manner consistent with everyone’s respective priorities. We’re grateful that some of the industry’s leading executives came to Nashville and talked through these important issues.” –RIAA spokesman spokesman

Note to readers: Have you received a warning letter from AT&T or another ISP? If so, e-mail me by clicking on the link in my bio below. Please include your contact information. I won’t reveal your name in any story if that’s what you prefer.

But what happens to chronic offenders? Cicconi said that his company will only send notices and that if a content owner wants more done, they need to see a judge.

“What we do is send notices and keep track of violations and IP addresses,” Cicconi said. “It’s our view that any stronger action has got to rest with the copyright owner…That’s what the courts are there for.”

Cicconi said the company began testing this kind of “forward noticing” late last year and even experimented with sending certified letters. Cicconi said the notices worked. The company saw very few repeat offenders.

CNET News reported Tuesday evening that Cicconi said AT&T had begun issuing warning notices to people accused of pirating music by the RIAA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 has mandated that ISPs forward those letters to people accused of violating copyright. But AT&T has begun sending its own “cover letter” along with the RIAA’s cease and desist notice, according to a company representative. Cicconi confirmed on Wednesday that those letters began going out last week. CNET also reported that in the notices sent to customers was language informing them that the company had the right to terminate service. Cicconi again confirmed that, but said the clause wasn’t much more than legal boilerplate.

“We’re pleased to be in constructive discussions with several ISPs,” said an RIAA spokesman. “We’re making important progress, and doing so in a manner consistent with everyone’s respective priorities. We’re grateful that some of the industry’s leading executives came to Nashville and talked through these important issues.”

The RIAA is encouraging ISPs to strengthen their responses to piracy. Some ISPs, such as Cox, says it had already implemented a policy very similar to what the RIAA is asking for.

“What we do is send notices and keep track of violations and IP addresses. It’s our view that any stronger action has got to rest with the copyright owner…That’s what the courts are there for.” –Jim Cicconi, AT&T executive

There has been some confusion about what the RIAA’s graduated response program involves. The program could include suspension or termination of service for repeat offenders. It’s up to the ISP to decide. But there are also other forms of escalating responses, such as the sending of multiple letters. Some of the notices could take a stronger tone or perhaps the ISP might follow up with a phone call.

Ideally for the the RIAA, the graduated response would culminate in a temporary suspension of the account for chronic offenders. Some ISPs have balked at that step, but the RIAA is still encouraged by discussions it’s had with the ISPs so far.

Comcast said Wednesday afternoon that it hasn’t changed its policy. An executive who spoke at the same conference as Cicconi told the audience that the company has sent 2 million notices on behalf of content owners. A company representative said the company has no plans to test “a so-called ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out’ policy.”

Palm’s bid to join the modern era of mobile computing will have to wait a little longer.

Palm has managed to keep its brand afloat over the past year with the success of the Centro, an inexpensive version of the Treo. Palm sold more than 1 million smartphones during the past quarter, but it’s not clear whether Palm actually makes any money on the sale of a Centro. The company reported a net loss of $41.9 million for the quarter.

A new operating system for Palm may not arrive until the middle of next year, instead of early next year.

(Credit:
CNET)

If it wasn’t for Palm’s decision to embrace the Windows Mobile operating system–used on its latest Treo Pro handset–the company might have gone out of business long ago. The current version of Palm OS was first introduced in 2004 and hasn’t really been updated since 2006. An awful lot has changed in this market since then, and Palm desperately needs new software to challenge the likes of Apple, Research In Motion, Symbian, and now Google.

The company reported yet another quarterly loss last week, and The Register noticed that Palm CEO Ed Colligan has tweaked the shipping expectations for the company’s new Linux-based operating system, known as Palm OS II. Once thought to arrive in early 2009, the new operating system is now targeted for the first half of 2009, which generally means May-June 2009 in the tech industry.

On the surface, the importance of the outcome of the Thomas case is somewhat diminished since the RIAA announced a couple of weeks ago that it is taking a different strategy to combating the sharing of illegal copyrighted music.

But a few weeks after the verdict was handed down, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis threw out the verdict on the grounds that he originally misguided the jury by indicating that simply the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. A new trial has been rescheduled for March.

Instead of suing individual users, the industry association plans to work with Internet service providers. Under this new arrangement, users that the RIAA suspects of illegally sharing music will be asked to stop their activity. If the activity persists after three warnings, ISPs will then cut off broadband service.

But the RIAA has said that proving that songs have been downloaded from services like Kazaa is nearly impossible. As a result, the RIAA has long argued that making digital music available for others to download illegally is an infringement on copyright.

Judge Davis threw out the verdict in the case because he argued that “actual” distribution of copyrighted music must be proven for the law to be violated. Therefore, the RIAA had to prove that users downloaded the music that Thomas was making available through the peer-to-peer service. Simply making the content available is not a violation of copyright, under this reasoning.

The main legal question yet to be answered is how to determine whether copyright laws have been violated in the digital age.

So far, the RIAA hasn’t disclosed details about how the new process will work, which has made some consumer advocates wary.

Over the years, judges have disagreed on this reasoning, and as a result, they have written different opinions on this issue. As a result, it’s very likely that the legal issue of what constitutes copyright infringement will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. Regardless of how the case is decided in March, it’s likely that the losing side will appeal. And after the case makes its way through the federal appellate courts, it will likely end up in the highest court of the land.

This case has been closely watched because Thomas is the only individual charged with copyright infringement by the RIAA who has taken her case to trial. Since 2003, many of the 26,000 persons sued by the industry association have simply settled the cases out of court by agreeing to pay a few thousand dollars. But Thomas, who has been accused of sharing music via a peer-to-peer service, Kazaa, has always maintained her innocence.

Even though the RIAA has revised its strategy toward copyright infringers, the legal questions raised in the Thomas case are very important and remain relevant to how the RIAA plans to battle copyright infringement in the future.

In an attempt to avoid another trial, the RIAA appealed the judge’s decision to declare a mistrial. But now it looks like the RIAA’s latest attempt to gain a conviction for copyright infringement has been thwarted.

A federal judge has denied the Recording Industry Association of America’s request for an appeal of an earlier decision to grant a retrial in its copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas.

Earlier this year a jury found that the Minnesota woman had violated copyright laws by illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs. The jury ordered the woman, Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay $220,000 to six of the top music labels.